Charged-particle beam exposure apparatus and method of manufacturing article

ABSTRACT

A charged-particle beam exposure apparatus which includes a deflector that deflects a charged-particle beam, and a stage mechanism that drives a substrate, and draws a pattern on the substrate while scanning the charged-particle beam in a main-scanning direction by the deflector and scanning the substrate in a sub-scanning direction by the stage mechanism. The apparatus includes a blanker unit configured to control irradiation and unirradiation of the substrate with the charged-particle beam, and a controller configured to control the deflector to deflect the charged-particle beam in the sub-scanning direction by an amount of driving of the substrate in the sub-scanning direction by the stage mechanism during a period of time from stop of drawing on the substrate until restart thereof when the drawing on the substrate is stopped and then restarted while the substrate is driven in the sub-scanning direction by the stage mechanism.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a charged-particle beam exposureapparatus which draws a pattern on a substrate by a charged-particlebeam, and a method of manufacturing an article using the same.

2. Description of the Related Art

An electron beam exposure apparatus draws a pattern on a substrate,mounted on a stage, by blanking an electron beam, emitted by an electrongun, in accordance with drawing data while scanning the stage in thesub-scanning direction and scanning the electron beam in themain-scanning direction. The blanking is an operation of switchingirradiation and unirradiation of the substrate with the electron beam.Controlling the timing of this switching also makes it possible tocontrol the time in which a unit region is irradiated with the electronbeam. The drawing data is generated from circuit design CAD data and isbitmap data of a circuit pattern. The drawing data has pixelscorresponding to the resolution of a circuit. The drawing data can havea size of about 10 Tbytes per chip at a line width of, for example, 22or 16 nm.

When the data size is large, an error may occur in the drawing data forvarious reasons. Examples of conceivable error factors includeelectrical noise and jitter during data transmission, and an errorgenerated by a memory which stores the data. When an error occurs duringtransmission, correct data must be retransmitted. In case of the errorgenerated by the memory, drawing data must be read out again orgenerated again. Due to these error factors, it may become impossible toprepare correct drawing data until a predetermined blanking timing.Also, due to a fluctuation in processing load upon generating drawingdata, it may become impossible to prepare data at a predeterminedblanking timing.

To prevent the stop of drawing due to delay of drawing data, a method oftransmitting and accumulating it in advance in a buffer memory providednear a blanker is available. With this method, even if the drawing datais delayed, drawing can be continued using the data accumulated in thebuffer memory, thus preventing degradation in throughput.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2001-196297 and 7-111945 describeelectron beam exposure apparatuses which return the position of a stageto that before interruption of drawing, when it restarts drawing.

Unfortunately, the method of providing a buffer memory increases thecost and mounting scale in proportion to the size of the buffer memory.This problem is serious especially in the recent electron beam exposureapparatus because it draws a pattern simultaneously using a large numberof electron beams to improve the throughput. Therefore, a buffer memorymust be prepared for each electron beam. This means that a considerablenumber of buffer memories must be prepared for a total number ofelectron beams although each individual electron beam requires only asmall buffer capacity. Since a buffer memory must be provided near theblanker, it is impossible to ensure a given mounting space and, in turn,to mount a buffer memory having the required capacity.

The electron beam exposure apparatuses described in Japanese PatentLaid-Open Nos. 2001-196297 and 7-111945 return the position of the stageto that before interruption of drawing, when it restarts drawing.Therefore, the stage moves to the position before interruption ofdrawing, and it takes a considerable time for the stage to reach apredetermined scanning speed by reacceleration, thus degrading thethroughput.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a technique advantageous in reducing thecapacity of a buffer memory and achieving a high throughput.

One of the aspects of the present invention provides a charged-particlebeam exposure apparatus which includes a deflector that deflects acharged-particle beam, and a stage mechanism that drives a substrate,and draws a pattern on the substrate while scanning the charged-particlebeam in a main-scanning direction by the deflector and scanning thesubstrate in a sub-scanning direction by the stage mechanism, theapparatus comprising: a blanker unit configured to control irradiationand unirradiation of the substrate with the charged-particle beam; and acontroller configured to control the deflector to deflect thecharged-particle beam in the sub-scanning direction by an amount ofdriving of the substrate in the sub-scanning direction by the stagemechanism during a period of time from stop of drawing on the substrateuntil restart thereof when the drawing on the substrate is stopped andthen restarted while the substrate is driven in the sub-scanningdirection by the stage mechanism.

Further features of the present invention will become apparent from thefollowing description of exemplary embodiments with reference to theattached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of acharged-particle beam exposure apparatus according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining an exemplary procedure of drawing apattern on a substrate;

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating the amount of deflection of an electronbeam in the sub-scanning direction by a deflector, and the position towhich a substrate is driven in the sub-deflection direction by a stagemechanism, when no error occurs;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are views illustrating a procedure of drawing on thesubstrate;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining an exemplary procedure of theoperation of the charged-particle beam exposure apparatus when theoccurrence of an error is detected;

FIG. 6 is a view illustrating the amount of deflection of an electronbeam in the sub-scanning direction by a deflector, and the position towhich a substrate is driven in the sub-deflection direction by a stagemechanism, when an error occurs in the first embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a view illustrating the amount of deflection of an electronbeam in the sub-scanning direction by a deflector, and the position towhich a substrate is driven in the sub-deflection direction by a stagemechanism, when an error occurs in the second embodiment; and

FIG. 8 is a view illustrating the amount of deflection of an electronbeam in the sub-scanning direction by a deflector, and the position towhich a substrate is driven in the sub-deflection direction by a stagemechanism, when an error occurs in the third embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is applicable to various charged-particle beamexposure apparatuses which draw a pattern on a substrate by acharged-particle beam while scanning the substrate in the sub-scanningdirection and scanning the charged-particle beam in the main-scanningdirection. The charged-particle beam can be, for example, an electronbeam or an ion beam. The charged-particle beam exposure apparatus may beconfigured to draw a pattern on a substrate using a plurality ofcharged-particle beams or a single charged-particle beam. To give a moredetailed example, the following description assumes that a pattern isdrawn on a substrate using a plurality of electron beams. However, theconcept to be explained hereinafter is limited neither by the type nornumber of charged-particle beams.

An electron beam exposure apparatus 100 that exemplifies theconfiguration of a charged-particle beam exposure apparatus according tothe present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1. Theelectron beam exposure apparatus 100 can include a stage mechanism 9which drives a substrate 8, an electron optical system 10 whichirradiates the substrate 8 with an electron beam, and an electronic unit110 which controls the stage mechanism 9 and electron optical system 10.The electron optical system 10 can include an electron gun(charged-particle source) 11, aperture array 12, blanker unit 13,deflector 20, and imaging system (not shown). An electron beam emittedby the electron gun 11 can be divided into a plurality of electron beamsby the aperture array 12. The plurality of electron beams formed by theaperture array 12 individually undergo control of irradiation (ON) andunirradiation (OFF) of the substrate 8 by the blanker unit 13. Althoughthe blanker unit 13 has a plurality of blankers in the example shown inFIG. 1, it typically has a single blanker when the charged-particle beamexposure apparatus is configured to draw a pattern on a substrate by asingle electron beam or charged-particle beam. The deflector 20 deflectsa plurality of charged-particle beams at once. The deflector 20 includesan X deflector 14 which deflects a charged-particle beam in the X-axisdirection (main-scanning direction), and a Y deflector 15 which deflectsit in the Y-axis direction (sub-scanning direction). The imaging systemforms images of the plurality of electron beams on the surface of thesubstrate 8.

The stage mechanism 9 can also be called, for example, a substrate stagemechanism. The stage mechanism 9 can include, for example, a substratechuck which holds the substrate 8, a stage which holds the substratechuck, and an actuator which drives the stage. The stage mechanism 9 hasa function of driving the substrate 8 in at least the Y-axis direction(sub-scanning direction). The stage mechanism 9 typically has a functionof driving the substrate 8 in a total of six axial directions: theX-axis direction (main-scanning direction), the Y-axis direction(sub-scanning direction), the Z-axis direction (the axial direction ofthe electron optical system 10), and rotation directions about the X-,Y-, and Z-axes.

The electronic unit 110 can include a blanker controller 131 whichcontrols the blanker unit 13, an X deflector controller 141 whichcontrols the X deflector 14, a Y deflector controller 151 which controlsthe Y deflector 15, and a stage mechanism controller 91 which controlsthe stage mechanism 9. The electronic unit 110 can also include asynchronization controller 5 which synchronously controls the blankerunit 13, X deflector 14, Y deflector 15, and stage mechanism 9 so thatthe electron beam is guided to a target position on the substrate 8.Note that the synchronization controller 5 controls the blanker unit 13,X deflector 14, Y deflector 15, and stage mechanism 9 via the blankercontroller 131, X deflector controller 141, Y deflector controller 151,and stage mechanism controller 91, respectively.

The electronic unit 110 also includes an interface 2 which transmitsdrawing data. The interface 2 can include a transmitter 32, transmissionline 34, and receiver 36. The blanker controller 131 controls theplurality of blankers of the blanker unit 13 so that irradiation andunirradiation of the substrate 8 with the plurality of electron beamsare individually controlled in accordance with the drawing data receivedby the receiver 36. The electronic unit 110 can also include a detector3 and recovery controller (controller) 4. The detector 3 detects theoccurrence of an underrun error that hampers supply of correct drawingdata to the blanker controller 131 while a pattern is drawn on thesubstrate 8. The recovery controller 4 controls the blanker controller131 to stop drawing as the occurrence of an underrun error is detectedby the detector 3. The recovery controller 4 then controls the blankercontroller 131 to restart drawing after correct drawing data becomesready to be supplied to the blanker controller 131. While the substrate8 is driven in the sub-scanning direction by the stage mechanism 9, therecovery controller 4 executes the following control when it restartsdrawing on the substrate 8 after the stop of drawing. In other words,the recovery controller 4 controls the Y deflector 15 to deflect thecharged-particle beam in the sub-scanning direction by the amount ofdriving of the substrate 8 in the sub-scanning direction by the stagemechanism 9 during the period of time from the stop of drawing to untilits restart.

The electronic unit 110 can include a drawing data source 1 whichtransmits drawing data to the blanker controller 131 via the interface2. The drawing data source 1 can generate drawing data to control theblanker unit 13, based on, for example, layout design data created bycircuit design CAD. This drawing data is bitmap data conforming to thepattern of a semiconductor circuit.

The drawing data source 1 may generate drawing data based on layoutdesign data every time the drawing data is requested, or generatedrawing data based on layout design data before the drawing data isrequested, and store it in a memory. In the former scheme, thecomputation load required to generate drawing data is relatively large,and the amount of computation considerably varies between complex andsimple portions of the design data. Therefore, drawing datacorresponding to the complex portion of the layout design data may notbe generated before the blanker unit 13 performs blanking. On the otherhand, in the latter scheme in which drawing data is stored in a memory,the processing load can be reduced, and the load does not fluctuate ineach individual design data, thus allowing a stable operation. However,this scheme requires a mass memory for holding bitmap drawing data, andtherefore may increase the frequency of occurrence of a memory readouterror.

It is necessary to minimize the probability of occurrence of an erroruntil the blanker unit 13 is controlled as the drawing data source 1transmits drawing data. Hence, the drawing data source 1 needs to beplaced as close to the blanker controller 131 as possible. However, thedrawing data source 1 can include, for example, a mass memory forprocessing a large amount of data, and a parallel processing computerfor performing a high-speed arithmetic operation, thus requiring a largemounting space. This makes it difficult to provide the drawing datasource 1 near the electron optical system 10. Therefore, drawing data istransmitted to the blanker controller 131 via the interface 2 from thedrawing data source 1 placed at a position spaced apart from theelectron optical system 10 so that a given mounting space can beensured. Note that the transmission line 34 in the interface 2 can be,for example, an optical fiber.

An exemplary procedure of drawing a pattern on the substrate 8 will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows a region 200 drawn byone of the plurality of electron beams. A region adjacent to the region200 is drawn by an adjacent electron beam. A drawing procedure will bedescribed below by focusing attention on one electron beam. The region200 is formed by micro regions 211 on pluralities of rows and columns,and one micro region 211 corresponds to one dot (minimum unit ofdrawing). When n electron beams are used, a pattern is drawn parallel toa partial region formed by n regions 200. In this specification, for thesake of simplicity, the following description assumes that the partialregion formed by the n regions 200 is equal to one chip region.

First, the X deflector 14, Y deflector 15, and stage mechanism 9 arecontrolled so that the upper left micro region 211 of the region 200 isirradiated with the electron beam. If the pattern to be drawn has a linewidth of 22 nm, the length of each side of the micro region 211 can beset to, for example, a half of this line width, that is, 11 nm. If thepattern to be drawn has a line width of 16 nm, the length of each sideof the micro region 211 can be set to, for example, a half of this linewidth, that is, 8 nm. While the micro region 211 is irradiated with theelectron beam, a corresponding blanker in the blanker unit 13 is drivento irradiate the micro region 211 with the electron beam for anirradiation time specified in the drawing data. Subsequently, theelectron beam is scanned rightward along the main-scanning direction(X-axis direction) by the X deflector 14, thereby sequentially shiftingit to adjacent micro regions 211 (solid arrow) and drawing a pattern forevery shift. When drawing in the micro regions 211 on one row iscomplete, the X deflector 14 is controlled so that the electron beam isguided to the leftmost micro region 211 on the next row (broken arrow).Since the stage mechanism 9 moves the substrate 8 at a constant speed inthe sub-scanning direction (Y-axis direction), the Y deflector 15linearly increases the amount of deflection in the sub-scanningdirection to follow the movement of the substrate 8, and returns thisamount of deflection to the initial amount of deflection to draw apattern on the next row after completion of drawing on one row. Byrepeating this process, a pattern is drawn in the entire region 200. Apattern is then drawn in an adjacent partial region (a chip region inthis case) in accordance with the same procedure. Although a pattern isdrawn while scanning the electron beam in the same direction on all rowsin FIG. 2, the scanning direction may be reversed between odd and evenrows.

FIG. 3 illustrates the amount of deflection by the Y deflector(sub-deflector) 15 when drawing data can normally be received by thereceiver 36. The stage mechanism 9 drives the substrate 8 at a constantspeed in the sub-scanning direction from the start of drawing in chipregions to its end. The maximum value of the amount of deflection by theY deflector (sub-deflector) 15 is equal to the distance by which thesubstrate 8 moves in the sub-scanning direction during main-scanning onone row.

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate a procedure of drawing in a plurality of chipregions CR within the plane of the substrate 8. In an example shown inFIG. 4A, a pattern is continuously drawn in the chip regions CR alignedon one column in the sub-scanning direction (Y-axis direction), and isthen continuously drawn in the chip regions CR aligned on an adjacentcolumn upon a shift to this column. This process is repeated to draw apattern on the entire surface of the substrate 8. In an example shown inFIG. 4B, a pattern is drawn in the chip regions CR on one row inaccordance with a procedure of drawing of a pattern in one chip regionCR on one column and drawing a pattern in the next chip region CR on anadjacent column. A pattern is then drawn on the next row in accordancewith the same procedure. This process is repeated to draw a pattern onthe entire surface of the substrate 8.

An exemplary operation procedure when the occurrence of an underrunerror is detected by the detector 3 will be described below withreference to FIG. 5. In step S1, the occurrence of an underrun error isdetected by the detector 3, and the recovery controller 4 is notified ofthis error. This notification will be referred to as error notificationhereinafter. At this time, the drawing data source 1 can add an errordetection code to drawing data, and transmit them to the receiver 36.The detector 3 can detect that an error has occurred during transmissionof drawing data by, for example, collating the received drawing data andthe error detection code. This error will be referred to as atransmission error hereinafter. When a transmission error occurs,correct drawing data must be retransmitted from the drawing data source1 to the blanker controller 131 via the interface 2, and an underrunerror may occur in this process. Hence, upon detecting a transmissionerror, the detector 3 can determine that the state in which correct datacannot be supplied to the blanker controller 131, that is, an underrunerror, has occurred. Although a CRC, for example, is commonly used asthe error detection code, other codes such as a Hamming code may beused. Alternatively, when transmission of drawing data from the drawingdata source 1 is delayed, the detector 3 can determine that an underrunerror has occurred.

In notifying the recovery controller 4 that the occurrence of anunderrun error has been detected, the detector 3 may notify the recoverycontroller 4 of information for identifying the portion in a series ofdrawing data, where an underrun error has occurred, and/or informationindicating an error factor. If it is determined that the drawing datasource 1 has an underrun error factor, for example, if the receiver 36has not received necessary drawing data although a transmission errorhas not occurred, the detector 3 may notify the drawing data source 1 tothat effect. Also, the drawing data source 1 may directly notify thedetector 3 or recovery controller 4 to that effect.

Upon receiving the error notification, the recovery controller 4controls the blanker controller 131 to stop drawing in step S2. Therecovery controller 4 can control the blanker controller 131 to stopdrawing via, for example, the synchronization controller 5 whichsynchronously controls the blanker unit 13, X deflector 14, Y deflector15, and stage mechanism 9. Alternatively, if a problem resulting fromdelay of a series of notifications up to the synchronization controller5 is posed, the recovery controller 4 or detector 3 may directly controlthe blanker controller 131 to stop drawing. The blanker controller 131can stop drawing by controlling the blanker unit 13 so that the electronbeam assumes an unirradiation state. This makes it possible to preventerroneous drawing.

In step S3, the recovery controller 4 determines the drawing restarttime by adding the standby time, required to restart drawing aftercorrect drawing data is prepared, to the current time. This standby timecan include, for example,

(1) the time from detection of the occurrence of an underrun error untilerror notification,

(2) the time taken to instruct the drawing data source 1 to retransmitdrawing data after the recovery controller 4 receives the errornotification,

(3) the time taken for the drawing data source 1 to prepare drawing dataagain,

(4) the time taken for the drawing data source 1 to retransmit thedrawing data, and

(5) a margin.

The standby time may be determined every time an underrun error occurs,or use a value determined in advance. In this case, the standby time maybe determined based on the information indicating an error factormentioned earlier.

In step S4, the recovery controller 4 instructs the drawing data source1 to prepare again drawing data in the portion where an underrun errorhas occurred, and to retransmit the drawing data in accordance with thedrawing restart time. Upon receiving the instruction, the drawing datasource 1 prepares drawing data in the portion where an underrun errorhas occurred, and subsequent drawing data. In this case, if, forexample, an error (transmission error) has occurred during transmissionof the drawing data via the interface 2, and the drawing data remains inthe transmission buffer of the transmitter 32, this drawing data can beused. If, for example, an error occurs when the drawing data source 1reads out the layout design data from the memory, the drawing datasource 1 reads it out from the memory again to generate drawing dataagain. If an underrun error results from, for example, delay ofgeneration of drawing data by the drawing data source 1, the drawingdata source 1 continues to generate it.

The drawing data source 1 retransmits drawing data so that the blankercontroller 131 can use drawing data at the drawing restart time, basedon, for example, the time taken to prepare the drawing data, and thetime taken to transmit it via the interface 2.

In step S5, the recovery controller 4 calculates the amount of drivingof the substrate 8 by the stage mechanism 9 until the drawing restarttime. Note that the stage mechanism 9 drives the substrate 8 at aconstant speed even during the stop of drawing. Therefore, the recoverycontroller 4 can determine the position of the substrate 8 at thedrawing restart time based on the period of time from the time at whichdrawing is stopped by the blanker unit 13 until the drawing restarttime, and the position of the substrate 8 at the time at which drawingis stopped.

In step S6, the recovery controller 4 changes the scanning end positionof the substrate 8 in the sub-scanning direction by the stage mechanism9 by the amount of driving of the substrate 8 in the sub-scanningdirection by the stage mechanism 9 during the period of time from thestop of drawing until its restart. This is done to prevent the end ofscanning of the substrate 8 before completion of drawing. The scanningend position can be changed by sending the scanning end position to thestage mechanism controller 91 by the recovery controller 4.

In step S7, at the time of restart of drawing on the substrate 8 afterits stop, the recovery controller 4 instructs the Y deflector controller151 to deflect the electron beam in the sub-scanning direction by theamount of driving of the substrate 8 in the sub-scanning direction bythe stage mechanism 9 during the period of time from the stop of drawinguntil its restart. Thus, at the drawing restart time, the position, inthe sub-scanning direction, of the substrate 8 driven by the stagemechanism 9, and the position of the electron beam in the sub-scanningdirection, can be matched with each other. This makes it possible torestart drawing from an appropriate position on the substrate 8.

In step S8, the recovery controller 4 instructs the blanker controller131, Y deflector controller 151, and X deflector controller 141 torestart drawing at the drawing restart time. The blanker controller 131controls the blanker unit 13 to restart drawing at the drawing restarttime in accordance with the retransmitted drawing data. The Y deflectorcontroller 151 controls the Y deflector 15 to restart following thesubstrate 8 driven by the stage mechanism 9 from the corrected positionin the sub-scanning direction. The X deflector controller 141 controlsthe X deflector 14 to restart a main-deflection operation at the drawingrestart time. The position in the main-scanning direction at the time ofrestart of drawing corresponds to the retransmitted drawing data. Notethat the stage mechanism controller 91 does not change its operationstate because it moves the substrate 8 at a constant speed in thesub-scanning direction. In step S9, drawing restarts at the drawingrestart time.

The recovery controller 4 may control the drawing data source 1, blankercontroller 131, X deflector controller 141, Y deflector controller 151,and stage mechanism controller 91 via the synchronization controller 5,as described above, or control them directly.

FIG. 6 illustrates the positional relationship in the sub-scanningdirection at the time of restart of drawing. In the duration from thedrawing restart time point to the error occurrence time point (drawingstop time point), the maximum value of the amount of deflection of theelectron beam in the sub-scanning direction is equal to the distance bywhich the substrate 8 moves in the sub-scanning direction duringmain-scanning on one row. At the drawing restart time point after anunderrun error occurs and drawing is stopped, the amount of deflectionof the electron beam in the sub-scanning direction is corrected by theamount of driving of the substrate 8, which is calculated in step S5,and drawing continues at the corrected position in the sub-scanningdirection. When an underrun error occurs again after the restart ofdrawing, the position of deflection of the electron beam in thesub-scanning direction is corrected again. Therefore, at the end ofdrawing, the amount of correction of the amount of deflection in thesub-scanning direction is accumulated by an amount of correctioncorresponding to the amount of deflection in the sub-scanning directionper number of times of occurrence of an error in the past. Therefore,the Y deflector 15 must have a deflection width at which the amount ofdeflection in the sub-scanning direction can sufficiently be correctedwith respect to the assumed number of times of occurrence of an error.Especially in drawing for each column shown in FIG. 4A, one column iscontinuously drawn, so the Y deflector 15 must have a deflection widthat which the amount of deflection can be corrected in correspondencewith the number of times of occurrence of an error during drawing on onecolumn. On the other hand, referring to FIG. 4B, the drawing startposition can be reset for each chip, so the Y deflector 15 need onlyhave a deflection width corresponding to one chip.

Conventionally, drawing is restarted after returning the substrate 8 tothe position at the error occurrence time point. Movement and settlementof the substrate 8 require, for example, about several hundredmilliseconds to several seconds, thus lowering the throughput. The delaytime until the restart of drawing becomes possible after drawing data isretransmitted can be kept as short as, for example, 1 ms or less becausethis delay time results from delay due to factors associated with anelectrical/software process. This delay time is overwhelmingly shorterthan a mechanical process time required to drive the substrate 8 by thestage mechanism 9. In this embodiment, the stage mechanism 9 drives thesubstrate 8 at a constant speed even during the stop of drawing, so thestage mechanism 9 does not change its operation state at all. Thisobviates the need to wait until the substrate 8 is moved or settled bythe stage mechanism 9, so the throughput lowers only a little. Also,there is no need to prepare a mass buffer memory in preparation for anerror, thus making it possible to easily mount a memory in the vicinityof a blanker and reduce the cost.

FIG. 7 illustrates the relationship between the deflection position andsubstrate position in the sub-scanning direction according to the secondembodiment of the present invention. The second embodiment is differentfrom the first embodiment in that in the former the speed of scanning ofa substrate 8 in the sub-scanning direction by a stage mechanism 9 isset lower after the restart of drawing than before its stop.

In step S6 of the operation procedure shown in FIG. 5, a recoverycontroller 4 sets the speed of scanning of the substrate 8 in thesub-scanning direction by the stage mechanism 9 to be lower after therestart of drawing than before its stop. Note that the amount of drop inscanning speed can be determined to fall within the range in which afluctuation in vibration/orientation of the stage mechanism 9 due to adrop in scanning speed settles/stabilizes to the degree that its adverseeffect on the restart of drawing becomes as small as possible until thedrawing restart time. The scanning speed is sufficiently dropped as longas this drop adversely affects the restart of drawing, to graduallyreturn the amount of deflection of the electron beam in the sub-scanningdirection to the initial state until the end of drawing so that theamount of change in scanning end position of the substrate 8 can becomesmall or zero, as illustrated in FIG. 7. Also, the scanning speed of thesubstrate 8 may be maintained without slowdown when the number of timesof occurrence of an error is small, and may be dropped when the numberof times of occurrence of an error increases to the degree that theamount of correction of the deflection position in the sub-scanningdirection exceeds a specific amount. While the speed of scanning of thesubstrate 8 by the stage mechanism 9 drops, the amount of deflection ofthe electron beam in the sub-scanning direction gradually changes, so aY deflector controller 151 controls the amount of deflection of a Ydeflector 15 so as to draw a pattern at an appropriate position by theelectron beam in accordance with the scanning speed.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, the amount ofchange in electron beam in the sub-scanning direction can be kept smalleven when errors occur a plurality of times. Especially in drawing foreach column shown in FIG. 4A, the scanning distance is long, and thenumber of times of occurrence of an error is large, so a great effect ofsuppressing the amount of correction of deflection in the sub-scanningdirection can be produced.

Also, since the amount of correction of the amount of deflection of theelectron beam in the sub-scanning direction can be set small, thedeflection width of the Y deflector 15 can be designed to be small, thusmaking it possible to increase the level of freedom of design of thedeflector. Hence, a more compact, accurate deflector can also be used.On the other hand, when the deflection width of the Y deflector 15 iskept large, the situation in which errors occur a large number of timescan be coped with, thus making it possible to increase the tolerance ofa transmission error of drawing data. This also makes it possible tosimplify a measure against noise produced by the interface 2 to reducethe cost.

FIG. 8 illustrates the relationship between the deflection position andsubstrate position in the sub-scanning direction according to the thirdembodiment of the present invention. The third embodiment is differentfrom the first and second embodiments in that in the former the drawingspeed of the electron beam is set higher after the restart of drawingthan before the stop of drawing.

In step S7, a recovery controller 4 instructs a Y deflector controller151 to correct the amount of deflection in the sub-scanning direction upto the drawing position at the drawing restart time, and instructs ablanker controller 131 to raise the drawing speed. The amount of rise indrawing speed corresponds to the amount of drop in speed of scanning ofthe substrate 8 by the stage mechanism 9 in the second embodiment. Inthe third embodiment as well, the amount of deflection of the electronbeam in the sub-scanning direction is gradually returned to the initialstate until the end of drawing so that the amount of change in electronbeam in the sub-scanning direction can become small or zero. To raisethe drawing speed, the recovery controller 4 instructs an X deflectorcontroller 141 and the Y deflector controller 151 to raise thedeflection speed. Also, because the drawing time per unit region isshortened, the recovery controller 4 sends an instruction to an electrongun 11 to increase the intensity of the electron beam, and sends aninstruction to a drawing data source 1 to increase the transmission rateof drawing data. The third embodiment may be practiced together with thesecond embodiment.

A method of manufacturing an article according to a preferred embodimentof the present invention is suitable for manufacturing an article suchas a semiconductor device or an original (also called, for example, areticle or a mask). The manufacturing method can include a step ofdrawing a pattern on a substrate, coated with a photosensitive agent,using the above-mentioned charged-particle beam exposure apparatus, anda step of developing the substrate having the pattern drawn on it. Whena device is to be manufactured, the manufacturing method can alsoinclude subsequent known steps (for example, oxidation, film formation,vapor deposition, doping, planarization, etching, resist removal,dicing, bonding, and packaging).

While the present invention has been described with reference toexemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is notlimited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of thefollowing claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as toencompass all such modifications and equivalent structures andfunctions.

This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No.2010-259523, filed Nov. 19, 2010, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

What is claimed is:
 1. A charged-particle beam exposure apparatus whichincludes a deflector that deflects a charged-particle beam, and a stagemechanism that drives a substrate, and draws a pattern on the substratewhile scanning the charged-particle beam in a main-scanning direction bythe deflector and scanning the substrate in a sub-scanning direction bythe stage mechanism, the apparatus comprising: a blanker unit configuredto control irradiation and unirradiation of the substrate with thecharged-particle beam; and a controller configured to control thedeflector to deflect the charged-particle beam in the sub-scanningdirection by an amount of driving of the substrate in the sub-scanningdirection by the stage mechanism during a period of time from stop ofdrawing on the substrate until restart thereof when the drawing on thesubstrate is stopped and then restarted while the substrate is driven inthe sub-scanning direction by the stage mechanism.
 2. The apparatusaccording to claim 1, further comprising: a blanker controllerconfigured to control the blanker unit in accordance with drawing data;and a detector configured to detect that an underrun error which hamperssupply of correct drawing data to the blanker controller has occurredwhile the drawing on the substrate is in progress, wherein thecontroller controls the blanker controller to stop the drawing as theoccurrence of the underrun error is detected by the detector.
 3. Theapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller changes an endposition of scanning of the substrate in the sub-scanning direction bythe stage mechanism by the amount of driving of the substrate in thesub-scanning direction by the stage mechanism during the period of timefrom the stop of drawing until the restart thereof.
 4. The apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the controller sets a speed of scanning ofthe substrate by the stage mechanism to be lower after the restartthereof than before the stop of drawing.
 5. The apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the controller sets a drawing speed higher after therestart of drawing than before the stop of drawing.
 6. A method ofmanufacturing an article, comprising the steps of: drawing a pattern ona substrate, coated with a photosensitive agent, using acharged-particle beam exposure apparatus which includes a deflector thatdeflects a charged-particle beam, and a stage mechanism that drives thesubstrate, and draws a pattern on the substrate while scanning thecharged-particle beam in a main-scanning direction by the deflector andscanning the substrate in a sub-scanning direction by the stagemechanism; and developing the substrate having the pattern drawnthereon, wherein the apparatus comprises: a blanker unit configured tocontrol irradiation and unirradiation of the substrate with thecharged-particle beam; and a controller configured to control thedeflector to deflect the charged-particle beam in the sub-scanningdirection by an amount of driving of the substrate in the sub-scanningdirection by the stage mechanism during a period of time from stop ofdrawing on the substrate until restart thereof when the drawing on thesubstrate is stopped and then restarted while the substrate is driven inthe sub-scanning direction by the stage mechanism.